For non-profit organizations, social media is a crucial instrument to increase community involvement and brand recognition. In this guide, you’ll know how to use social media for nonprofits
According to a report for 2022 by the YMCA 33% of teenagers (aged 18-38) demonstrate their support for causes they value through sharing these causes via social networks.
With so many software and features, it’s difficult to determine where to put your attention to achieve the best outcomes.
To help you make it easier for you, we’re sharing tips on the steps to create an effective social media strategy for non-profit organizations.
Table of Contents
How to use social media for nonprofits?
If you’re looking to set up your very first social media account or review your current content These steps will put you started:
- Establish the objectives of your company and establish Social Goals
- Choose Your Audience of Target
- Create Your Content Strategy
- Create and schedule your Content
- Monitor and measure your results
Step 1: Determine the company’s Social Media Goals
To use Social Media for nonprofits, The first step of your non-profit’s social media marketing campaign is to determine your mission.
Begin by asking yourself the question What do you want your social media posts to achieve?
If you are a non-profit organization, your goals may include one (or any) among the following
- Increase brand recognition
- Instruct people about your mission and cause
- Fundraise from existing and new donors
- Engage your existing supporters
- Enhance your reach by engaging new audience members
- Encourage others to take other (non-monetary) actions, such as volunteering sign-ups
The Innocence Project — a group that is dedicated to defending those wrongfully convicted, for instance, makes use of Facebook to solicit donations.
Be aware that you need to set “SMART” targets:
S – Specific
M Measurable
A – Attained
Relevant
T – Time-bound
If you stick to this plan when setting your goals, it will be much easier to monitor your progress and evaluate your progress.
If you are a non-profit organization, your SMART goals in social media could be to raise at least $5,000 from Instagram donors before the close of the year or increase sign-ups to recruit to 10 percent by the end of Q3, for example.
ICYMI Later offers a 50 discount on monthly and annual subscriptions for non-profit organizations. Learn more about it here.
Step #2: Determine Your Target Audience
The potential for a non-profit to reach a large audience through social media is enormous. To use Social Media for nonprofits, Take a look at these statistics:
- More than 1.8B users use Facebook every day
- Instagram has 500M per day.
- Twitter has 206M users
- TikTok has 689M active monthly users.
However, not everyone will be able to connect with your cause So before you even begin posting, you must decide on your group of readers (aka the segment of people who will most likely back you).
Where are your friends where are they located? What is their age, on average? What values or interests do they share?
Determining your audience’s needs will allow you to reach them more effectively by providing content specifically that is tailored to their needs.
To use Social Media for nonprofits, Consider The Trevor Project, for an example. The Trevor Project, which offers to counsel for LGBTQ youth in crisis has a popular and clearly defined target audience: LGBTQ+ kids and young adults.
If you browse over their various social media sites you’ll see that their content was designed to attract the audience they are targeting.
The Tory Burch Foundation, on its part, is focused on helping women entrepreneurs, hence the content they publish is written for an older, more business-oriented audience.
TIP: Use the information you have about your current fans (their preferences, their demographics, etc.) to determine your ideal people for social platforms. There is usually a connection between both.
Step 3: Develop Your Content Strategy
With your nonprofit’s social media objectives and the target audience identified It’s now time to create your strategy for creating content.
In the beginning, you’ll have to determine the most effective social media platforms for your company.
Instead of wasting your time trying to make a presence on every social media platform begin by selecting one or two major platforms to concentrate on.
For example, if you’re focused on Gen Z, you may be better off focusing on TikTok as well as Instagram. However, if your primary women are expecting their first children You’ll likely find greater success with Facebook or Pinterest.
To use Social Media for nonprofits, take for instance the Malala Fund for example.
Although they are present on nearly all social networks, however, they place the majority of their attention on TikTok along with Instagram to connect with teenagers, teens, and women in their early 20s.
Step #4: Plan and Schedule Your Content
Once you’ve identified which social media networks you want to concentrate on, it’s time to begin making your content.
To use Social Media for nonprofits, your posts should organized to keep your posts organized, you can make a calendar of content that outlines the content you plan to write about and when and also make for a few months (or maybe even months) ahead of time.
While you’re putting together your calendar be sure to keep the following methods in your head:
1. Tell stories about people
Engage your social media followers behind the background of your non-profit organization by sharing their stories with your staff, your major donors, as well as the communities you support.
2. Prioritize Visual Content
Research has shown that visual content significantly outperforms text-only posts on social networks. People are three times more likely to be engaged by tweets that contain images and videos. Videos outperform static images on the majority of social media platforms.
3. Create Share-able, Easy-to-Share Content
As a non-profit organization, you’re considered to be an expert in your field.
Profit from that by using your professional status to promote valuable, reliable educational content.
You could consider creating carousel-style posts on Instagram or infographics – they’re visually appealing, and also an easier way to communicate information.
4. Encourage Engagement Through Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Always use explicit CTAs to inform your followers what they can do to help your cause.
Ocean conservation nonprofit, Oceana doesn’t just ask its followers to “TAKE action,” but they also send clicks to a website that includes a petition site.
5. Think about partnering with similar creators and brands to use Social Media for Nonprofits
One of the most efficient methods to increase your visibility on any social media platform is to work with those who have the same values as you do.
Through collaboration with influencers and creatives, you are able to tap into their following to boost the visibility of your cause and increase your following.
Are you new to influencer marketing? Learn everything you need to begin your first collaboration with us in this blog article the Ultimate Handbook for Influencer Marketing
Step #5: Record and evaluate Your Results
To figure out what type of content is most effective for your non-profit organization on Social media platforms, it’s worthwhile to test and observe the effectiveness of different kinds of posts work.
If you’ve made a “business or social media for nonprofits” account (available across all social networks) you’ll be able to gain access to Instagram Analytics to learn more about the impact of your posts.
You can find out the more you can about your target audience is, the times of day they’re on the internet, and what kind of content they consume the most frequently.
It is also possible to use Later’s Instagram Analytics feature for an easy-to-read, visual representation of the performance of your posts.
It’s an effective tool to aid you in reaching your goals and also reaching new people.
However, creating an effective social media plan will require trial and error. Therefore, take your time, try out new content, and tweak your social media strategy when needed.
